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Marcus Smith thrilled to get chance to underwhelm fans, coaches at training camp

The soon to be unemployed Marcus Smith.

Philadelphia, PA – Following the news that OLB Travis Long had torn his ACL for the second time in three seasons, second year OLB Marcus Smith knew this would open doors for him in training camp.

You never want to hope for the injury of another teammate, but the opportunity is not lost on Smith.

“I can’t wait to get out on the field and show the coaches what I did over the off season,” Smith told reporters Thursday morning. “I don’t want to go too much into my training regiment, but let’s just say I got up to 20 pushups and over 50 jumping jacks at my absolute peak. Do you think anyone else here can do this?”

Smith broke into a modified standing run in front of reporters, and successfully kept it up for 25 seconds.

In the first two practices, reporters noted Smith had yet to miss a huddle and successfully tied his left shoelace during Wednesday afternoon’s session without missing a beat.

Perhaps the highlight of camp for Smith so far came early Tuesday morning. Smith was taking first team defense snaps and noticed an errant practice ball had skipped onto the playing field. Acting quickly, Smith jogged over to the loose football, picked it up, and threw it back to the sidelines, making it on one bounce.

“Hmmmm…someone’s been practicing,” Chip Kelly said, making a note on his clipboard.

As of press time, Smith received his biggest cheer from the fans Thursday morning when the training staff announced he would not be practicing during today’s session.